Lilongwe Golf Club (LGC) has retained the EthCo Ladies Interclub Golf Tournament title for a second consecutive year after its first team posted a gross score of 362 strokes to beat Blantyre Sports Club (BSC) 1 and BSC 2 into second and third positions respectively.
The two-day tournament, held at Kasasa Golf Club in Dwangwa from September 12 to 13, brought together 59 golfers and featured a K20 million donation to EthCo’s Swinging for Her Future initiative, which supports girls’ education.
LGC 1, comprising Stella Ng’oma, Deborah Lazaro and Ekari Mvula, received K2.7 million after finishing six strokes ahead of BSC 1, which posted 372 strokes to claim K2.1 million. BSC 2 finished third on 374 strokes and received K1.8 million.
Speaking after the tournament, EthCo Chief Executive Officer Lusubilo Chakaniza said the company was pleased with the growth of the competition, which it has sponsored exclusively for seven consecutive years.
“We are so happy. What we set out to achieve has come to fruition in full. We have been sponsoring women’s golf exclusively for seven years, but we wanted to make this tournament more impactful, while also empowering women and building the future of young girls through the Swinging for Her Future initiative,” said Chakaniza.
Minister of Agriculture and guest of honour and golfer at the tournament, Roza Fatch Mbilizi, commended EthCo for its continued support of women’s golf and said the growing participation of young golfers was encouraging.
“It is very significant. There are not many ladies playing golf, and some of us are getting to retire from the game. So, it is very encouraging that there are so many young girls playing, and I give it up to EthCo for bringing in so many girls. As much as we help them to play golf, we also assist them with their education,” said Mbilizi.
LGC Ladies Captain Mirriam Nankhuni said the team had been uncertain about its chances after a difficult opening day but regained confidence from the results before successfully defending the championship.
“The competition that we saw on the first day made us nervous. We really didn’t think we were going to go through, but yesterday’s results gave us positive feedback that we could defend our championship. Our Team One players played really well today and gave us the confidence, and we are very excited that we defended our championship,” said Nankhuni.
In the individual competition, BSC’s Bertha Sagwirika won the Championship Division with a gross score of 179, followed by LGC’s Deborah Lazaro and Stella Ng’oma, who both finished on 181.
The tournament was supported by Press Corporation Plc, Illovo Sugar Malawi, Carbon Dioxide and Allied Products (Private) Limited, Nkhanga Essential Support Services and PressCane Limited.
